Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 186 Do you have the will to fight loneliness?

Olvera flexibly used sword combos, elemental combination magic and flash counterattacks to roam freely among the monsters on her own, and soon wiped out all these ferocious shadow beasts - along with two huge and oppressive elite monsters.

The corridors were littered with broken limbs and bloody flesh, which hissed with black flames and gradually turned into mist and dissipated, leaving behind only various props.

The health bar above Ovella's head had dropped by less than one-third.

She put away her weapon and rested for a while. After catching her breath, she walked forward and began to pick up the items dropped by the monsters. Most of them were [ashes of the embers], and occasionally there would be gems, but they were not as practical as the few gems she was using now, so the princess threw them all into the prop column, destined to be covered in dust.

"what?"

She suddenly discovered an unusual item, which was shining in the monster corpse that had not yet disappeared. She walked over, picked it up, and checked its properties.

[Key fragment: One of the split key fragments. After collecting all the fragments, they can be combined into a key to open the space between the rulers.]

"this--"

Aoweila opened her mouth and couldn't help asking, "Why are they fragments?"

……

Olvera and Saint Xia Liya both agreed with it, and the lamb even made a "baa" sound, rarely opposing Lingge's remarks.

"Oh, you're talking about that." Alice's tone seemed nonchalant. Perhaps in her opinion, this was not a big deal: "Because there are no new elite monsters on this floor, it would be too perfunctory to get the keys from the elite monsters that have already been defeated, so I slightly modified the way to obtain the keys. From the perspective of game creation, this is also a very reasonable design. After all, every floor should give players a sense of freshness..."

"It's just laziness after all." Ling Ge interrupted coldly, exposing the fact that a certain golden-haired maid tried her best to disguise: "They don't want to design new elite monsters, so they lengthened the process of obtaining the key. It seems to have no other use except to delay the player's game time."

Everyone thought of the same thing.

In the end, Olvera raised her hands helplessly and surrendered: "I know, Alice, I will go and get the key fragments, so don't read it anymore."

The golden-haired maid was immediately smug. "That's right. A qualified RPG player must have the will and patience to keep grinding. How can you just escape when you encounter difficulties? You shouldn't insult the creator of the game. Do you know how much I have paid for this game? Do you know how hard it is for me to stay up late every night until I faint? Have you ever seen the sun at six o'clock in the morning in Rostin City..."

The keys that were dropped before were complete keys and could be used directly. But why is it that now that we are in the corridor on the third floor, we have to collect the key fragments before we can synthesize a complete key?

"S-Stop talking nonsense!"

Alice was furious and said angrily, "Brushing is also part of the RPG game. If you don't like it, don't play it!"

So annoying.

Then there were some words that no one could understand, such as "random numbers are all pseudo-random", "Europeans don't cheat Europeans", "Why go to Karazhan before you graduate from Karazhan", etc. Her muttering sounded like a chirping sparrow, which annoyed her teammates. They wanted to block her, but this crappy game didn't have that function.

In this way, Olvera was forced to embark on a journey of slashing and slashing, and the shadow beasts in the corridor of the third floor also ushered in a brutal massacre. The princess chopped all the way from the entrance to the deepest part, and finally stopped in front of the door between the rulers, but she only had three key fragments in her hand, and she could not synthesize a complete key.

Therefore, he had no choice but to return the same way and sweep away the newly refreshed shadow beasts again before he gathered the remaining two fragments and successfully synthesized the key.

But this was not the end, because she found herself back at the entrance as she chopped. In order to go back and open the door between the rulers, she had to walk the road she had walked twice again. At this time, the shadow beasts just refreshed again...

Ten minutes later, the princess stood in front of the tightly closed black iron door, holding the hilt of the sword and panting. She wanted to take out the key to open the door, but she didn't even have the strength to do so. Finally, she sat on the ground, looking very embarrassed. Her health was still healthy and basically full, but the energy consumption could not be expressed in numbers. Moreover, the repetitive labor of brushing the corridor three times in a row was too mentally polluting. As a result, she would be startled when she heard the low roar of the shadow beast. Her back would involuntarily tense up, and the whole person was in a highly tense state of stress.

"That's all?" Alice thought her reaction was too exaggerated. "You can't stand it after less than half an hour of grinding. You're so weak, Olivia. I worked for eighteen hours straight to get a hidden item! Of course, I can't compare to those real hard-working people. They all grind while receiving nutrient solution..."

When Aoweila heard this, she couldn't help but shudder and muttered softly: "The people outside are so scary."

Ling Ge: “…”

As far as the young people know, even the most unscrupulous factories will not force workers to work for eighteen hours straight. Firstly, work efficiency cannot be guaranteed, and secondly, they are afraid of triggering workers' riots, which will in turn attract intervention from the religious alliance. Overall, it is not worth the loss.

However, in the strange world where Alice lives, high-intensity labor of more than eighteen hours has become commonplace. From this, it can be seen that although their civilization is more advanced, their social system is very barbaric and backward, which is regrettable.

After resting for a few minutes, Ovilla, who had finally recovered her breath, walked to the black iron door, took out the key stained with the blood and wailing of countless shadow beasts, and as usual, selected yes on the system prompt that popped up. Then she watched the two doors slowly open with a low, sour sound. The darkness behind the door suddenly overflowed the light of the lantern and poured into her eyes.

The night is as dark as an abyss, with the sea surging sadly in it. The sound of the flooding tide is empty and distant. All that the naked eye can see is bottomless darkness, where light cannot penetrate and vision is cut off. Once people step in, they will be drowned in it and unable to find the way they came.

Such pure darkness will silently erode the boundaries of light. At the edge of the bright area opened up by the lantern light, the light is penetrated by the darkness, presenting a jagged state, as if a beast from the dark world is sticking its fangs into this tiny island, trying to swallow up the faint light within.

Because of the curse, Olvera has always had an instinctive fear of darkness, and the darkness she saw before her was far darker than any darkness she had ever seen in the past. It was deeper than the night and thicker than the fog, and just looking at it made people feel suffocated.

She subconsciously stopped, hesitating and not daring to move forward.

At this moment, from the distant darkness, a hoarse and sad singing voice suddenly came. It seemed like the siren mentioned in the story, hovering on the reefs in the deep sea, calling out to the cruise ship wandering in the fog. She sang in a sad voice -

"Eternal night of dreams, suffering and hardship;"

"Endless darkness, surrounded by thorns."

"I am like a reed, floating and sinking with the waves;"

"Life is like a tiny fire, it is fleeting."

It lingers in my ears, like crying, complaining, sorrow and longing.

This ballad...

Olvera's eyes were dazed for a moment, as if she was recalling the past at that moment.

At this moment, someone suddenly asked: "Do you have the will to fight loneliness?"

"your Highness?"

The third-floor corridor of the Dark Castle at the southern foot of Sosen in the Beman Ruins, exploration progress: 80%.

　Give me some meow
　　
　
(End of this chapter)